Saturday, January 05, 2008

No Meteors For You

I didn't get to see any meteors last night - it was just too hazy in that part of the sky. It was as if the soup nazi is now in the meteor business and saying, "You... no meteors for you." Oh well... there will be other meteor showers.

Meteor Showers always make me think about Robert Frost's poem "The Star Splitter," although no telescope was involved.

My favorite part is this little snippet.

I recollect a night of broken clouds
And underfoot snow melted down to ice,
And melting further in the wind to mud.
Bradford and I had out the telescope.
We spread our two legs as it spread its three,
Pointed our thoughts the way we pointed it,
And standing at our leisure till the day broke,
Said some of the best things we ever said.

I've had that experience while looking at the stars of pointing thoughts that direction and also sharing some of your best conversation with someone while doing it. Maybe that's why I love that particular bit so much.

Last night it was just me and I wasn't talking to myself. And I'm afraid my thoughts were much more mundane - namely how to keep warm.

Ah, but another night... another chance... for meteors and for lofty thoughts and for good conversation....